When I retired, I took up residence in Red California:
http://vote2002.ss.ca.gov/Returns/gov/mapComp.htm
If anyone thinks California is a bastion of liberals, this map shows the real picture. The population centers vote Democrat; everywhere else votes Republican. As a silicon valley liberal, it has been an adjustment to me to live among people whose perception of reality is quite different from mine. Since I wanted to "give back" to the community, I went looking for places volunteers were needed. The local jail was one. For the last three years, I've been visiting the women in jail as a "peer counselor." My job is to sit and listen. The women come to sit with me because it is less boring than sitting in their cells. Boredom is the overwhelming reality.
To a woman, they are addicted to crank (meth). (Story from NPR last week on the explosion of meth-related family problems and cuts in funding for meth programs.)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4726336
The crank led to crime and to jail. They almost all have children who are living through their parents' addiction. Many of the women have had their children taken away by the local government or by family members (usually grandparents). Their husbands, lovers, siblings tend to be crank addicts (and frequently in jail) also. There are several questions I ask each woman when I meet her: how did you get here, do you have children, are they OK while you are here, what is your plan for living when you are released? Many are repeat offenders and spend time in jail on a regular basis.
There are heartbreaking choices to be made. A woman was sentenced to six months in jail and three years probation. Although she has children, she is negotiating to spend a year in jai and no probation, because formal probation brings with it three times a week urine testing which costs $6 per test.
The young and the old get to me. The girl who had just turned 18 and come into the adult detention system; the woman who was 66 and just wanted to get out of jail long enough to apply for her social security. The young girl so bright; dropped out and has been running wild since she was fourteen; just found out she is pregnant and the father is in jail. I'm never so aware of how middle aged and middle class I am.
How do we reclaim these women? I agonize over this question every time I visit them in jail.
Joe Bageant, who writes for the Energy Grid,
http://energygrid.com/society/2005/05jb-liberaldogs.html
presents a set of criteria which apply to the women I talk with in jail. The working poor: vote Republican, don't know any Democrats, think Walmart is the best, don't know the difference between a Senator and a Representative. Mr. Bageant thinks salvation for the working poor is education.
I hope my sitting and talking with these women qualifies as education.